Models recall stunts, camaraderie of Silver Springs

A group of Silver Springs models from the 1950s and '60s recently crammed into Bruce Mozert's tiny photo studio for a reunion that included hugs, memories and funny stories.

By Marian RizzoCorrespondent

A group of Silver Springs models from the 1950s and '60s recently crammed into Bruce Mozert's tiny photo studio for a reunion that included hugs, memories and funny stories. The women, now in their 70s and 80s, shared the moment with Mozert and also Jack McEarchern, a veteran Silver Springs employee who appeared in several magazine ads with the ladies.

As the park's longtime photographer, Mozert lived what many men might consider “a dream job.” He got to work with a bevy of lovely young girls who worked in the public relations office under Bill Blue Ray but were available at Mozert's beck-and-call for modeling assignments.

But Mozert had a strictly professional attitude. Recalling the parade of beauties that came through the park, he said he simply viewed them as photographic art.

“It was no different than shooting a two-by-four,” Mozert said. “They were just human beings to me.”

Arrilla Jones Milby, of south Daytona, said she felt comfortable posing for Mozert, who always treated them with respect.

“He was the A-one photographer as far as I'm concerned,” Milby said. “He never used bad language around me. He was a very strong, moral man, and I appreciated that so much. I've been in touch with Bruce over the years. Every time I come through Ocala I stop and say hi to him. He's a Christian and I'm a Christian. The last time I was there, I was able to sit down with Bruce and share what Jesus has done for us.”

Modeling for Mozert had its creative moments, particularly during the holidays, Milby recalled.

“For the Fourth of July, I had a rocket strapped to my back and I was lighting the fuse. But, it was just a prop,” she said.

There were occasional scary incidents, like the time she was posed with a live bear.

“I was supposed to have some chocolate in my mouth, and he would come up and take it out,” she said. “His tongue went from my chin to my forehead taking that candy out of my mouth. When I ran out of candy, he pushed me to the ground.”

In Mozert's studio, Milby reminisced over photos of herself and her friends, Pat McLauchlin Nelson and Betty Frazee Haskins. Some were simple, everyday poses with the girls doing household chores or playing sports. At other times, they shared the lens with some of Silver Springs' wildlife.

“We were either very brave or we were very young and dumb,” Haskins said. “I once wrestled an alligator for a movie, and Ross Allen had to come out and show me how to do it. The ideas came from Bruce and Bill and Ricou Browning -- he was a real idea man. I think they sat around all day thinking of something for us to do.”

In his early 20s, John Ming worked for Mozert at the park, shooting photos of people on the glass-bottom boats and taking pictures of some of the models.

“A lot of the crazy stuff happened before I came there,” Ming said. “I left for a while to help my father with his commercial fishing business. When I came back to the springs, my primary job was to take cheesecake pictures of the girls in different kinds of funny settings. If you got an idea, you made it work. That's basically what Bruce was doing. He had a terrific imagination. When the girls came to work in the morning, they didn't know what they'd be doing. Bruce would get an idea, and the next thing you know, they're standing there in a bathing suit or short-shorts and away we went. We put their faces up all over the country. That was a job I would have worked at for free while the Rays had it.”

It was Haskins who invited Nelson, now of Gainesville, to the park. Nelson also attended Reddick High School, where she was a cheerleader and Haskins was a drum majorette. After being hired at Silver Springs, the two did several promotional projects together.

“It was a fun job,” Nelson said. “Here I was, a little country girl, going to New York and getting to go on 'The Today Show' with Dave Garroway. They did a thing on Florida bathing beauties and three of us went from Silver Springs.”

Though most of her shots were considered cheesecake, Nelson recalled some hair-raising stunts, like the time she had to stand near a large diamondback rattlesnake Ross Allen brought to the set.

“I'm terrified of snakes,” Nelson said. “They froze it with a fire extinguisher. Then, they set up all these metal reflectors to put the light where they wanted it. The reflection off the metal kept thawing out the snake. I was ready to climb the nearest tree. They had to keep freezing it and then thawing it out.”

While working at Silver Springs, Nelson became a judge for the Miss University of Florida contest when it was held at the park. Actress Faye Dunaway, then a student at UF, was runner-up.

Nelson was crowned Miss Sebring Grand Prix in 1958. She also posed for a “Seventeen” magazine swimsuit article shot at Silver Springs and did underwater stunts for a couple of “Sea Hunt” episodes.

Those were the days before Photoshop and other photographic enhancements, so the girls' natural beauty had to come through. But Mozert had some tricks of his own, Nelson said. For one, he had the girls stand on their toes so their muscles would tense up for a streamlined look.

“Bruce always said, 'Suck in your gut and wet your lips,'” she said. “None of us were very tall, so he would always get down and shoot up on us.”

For Luresa Lake, posing for Mozert was an opportunity of a lifetime. She still has the Paradise Park brochure she modeled for in the late 1940s. On the cover, Lake is leaning against the trunk of a palm tree with the text, “Sunbathing is fun at Paradise Park on Silver River near Ocala, Florida.”

“That picture went on the wire and the brochure went all over the southeast,” Lake said.

Lake was working in a county office that attended to the needs of Ocala's black residents when Paradise Park manager Eddie Leroy Vereen asked her to pose for promotional photos.

“I was quite pleased, because, in the first place, I became a model. That, by itself, was great to me, because there weren't that many black models in the state,” Lake said. “Mr. Vereen was looking for young black ladies that were attractive in Ocala. I was available because I lived in the city of Ocala and was convenient to Silver Springs.”

Now 83 and active with Shady Grove Missionary Baptist Church, Lake came to meet with the other models at Mozert's studio.

“The peculiar thing about life, after you get old, you don't travel or get around as much as you used to,” she said. “It's the most wonderful thing, every now and then, if you might see some of those people who were in the pictures.”